Babylon. Nothing in Babylon was changed, and she
remained what she had been since the fall of Assyria, the real capital
of the regions between the Mediterranean and the Zapcos. The Persian
dominion extended undisputed as far as the Isthmus of Suez. Under Cyrus
took place the first return of the Jews to Jerusalem.

According to Xenophon, the great Persian, in 529 B.C., died peaceably on
his bed, surrounded by his children, and edifying them by his wisdom;
but Herodotus declares that he perished miserably in fighting with the
barbarian hosts of the Massagetae, on the steppes of Turkestan, beyond
the Arxes. He had believed that his destiny was to found an empire in
which all other ancient empires should be merged, and he all but
accomplished the stupendous task. When he passed away, Egypt alone
remained to be conquered. Cambyses succeeded, took up the enterprise
against Egypt; but after a series of successes met with reverses in
Ethiopia, which affected his mind, and he is said to have ended his own
life. Power fell into the hands of a chief of one of the seven great
clans, the famous Darius, son of Hystaspes, whose rival was
Nebuchadrezzar III., then King of Babylon.

Once more, in his reign, Babylon was besieged and fell, Nebuchadrezzar
being executed. He was an impostor who had pretended to be the son of
the great Nebuchadrezzar. And now approached the last days of the
greatness of the Eastern world, for the eve of the Macedonian conquest
of the Near East had arrived.

* * * * *

FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS

The Antiquities of the Jews

Josephus's "Antiquities of the Jews" traces the whole history
of the race down to the outbreak of the great war. He also
wrote an autobiography (see Lives and Letters) and a polemical
treatise, "Flavius Josephus against Apion." His style is so
classically elegant that critics have called him the Greek
Livy. The following summary of the "Antiquities of the Jews"
contains the substance of the really valuable sections, other
portions being little else than a paraphrase of the histories
embodied in the Old Testament.

_I.--From Alexander to Antiochus_

After Philip, King of Macedon, had been treacherously slain by
Pausanias, he was succeeded by his son Alexander, who, passing over the
Hellespont, overcame the army of Darius, King of Persia, at Granicum. So
he marched over Lydia, subdued Ionia, overran Ca